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Finding fellowship in cosplay

Three participants’ mission is to bring practice back to art form

Elena Mathys cosplays as Bandit Sivir from the video game “League of Legends.” She feels cosplay is important to create a sense of community. “It should be about art, the effort, the friends that you make and the community,” she said.

NIck Puckett

Chris Clarke cosplays in the Altera Blademaster armor from the video game “Monster Hunter: Frontier G.” His costume cost about $400 and won him three competition awards in 2017, two Best in Show awards from Cheyenne Comic Con and GalaxyFest and a judge’s award from Denver Comic Con.

Nick Puckett

Elena Mathys, left, Chris Clarke, center, and Jennifer Losty, right, are the founders of Colorado Academy of Cosplay, a group dedicated to teaching beginner cosplayers in an effort to keep cosplay an art form.

Nick Puckett

Jennifer Losty cosplays as Valka from the movie “How to Train Your Dragon 2.” Losty said she chose Valka based on a connection to the character.

Nick Puckett

Elena Mathys helps Jennifer Losty take off the torso part of her Valka costume Sept. 16 at Lions Park in Golden.

Nick Puckett

Posted
Tuesday, September 25, 2018 3:24 pm

Interested in cosplay?

Chris Clarke and the Colorado Academy of Cosplay specialize in teaching beginning cosplayers how to get started.

The three founders, including Jennifer Losty and Elena Mathys, started the group in June to bring cosplay back to what it’s all about — community, the challenge and the enjoyment.

Mathys believes the art is being lost by people who want to dress up only in lingerie and a wig calling it cosplay, but do it for attention and followers.

The CAC were on an introduction-to-cosplay panel at Nan Desu Kan, an anime convention in Denver, earlier this month.

Here are some tips on how to get into cosplay from CAC:

Use the internet

There are several local cosplay groups you can join online to get started. The biggest one on Facebook is Colorado Cosplay, but each one may be suited better for different cosplayers. There are worldwide groups you can join as well.

Some are specific to the type of cosplay. One group, Evil Ted’s Foam Fanatics, specializes in costumes that require EVA foam, which is common in armor costumes.

Know what you want

Begin by knowing what character you want to be. Are they in clothes, armor, a mix, or something else? Or is there a certain type of material you want to work with?

Knowing your skills and what you are able to do helps as well. If you can’t sew very well or aren’t good with a certain material, it may be better to choose a different character or to find a different way to put together the costume.

Get out there

Attending conventions is the best way to meet people in the cosplay community. Listening to panels and joining cosplayer or fabricator livestreams on Twitch.Tv are helpful ways to learn how to put together a suit.

You can start small and go thrifting, buy a costume or dive head-first into a complicated suit.

“It all depends on what you want to do and how much money and time you want to spend on it,” Clarke said.

“Just remember, no matter the age, race, gender, orientation, size, weight, ability or disability, budget or time, no matter what, cosplay is for everybody.”

It took Chris Clarke about five minutes to completely transform from plainclothes civilian to cosplay hero.

First, he pulled his armor, made of ethylene-vinyl acetate foam, over his legs. Then came the chest plate. The final piece, a converted motorcycle helmet with foam aesthetics was placed on his head, and he was Altera Blademaster, a humanoid from the video game “Monster Hunter: Frontier G.”

The suit won Clarke the Best in Show at GalaxyFest and Cheyenne Comic Con, as well as a judge’s award at Denver Comic Con, all in 2017. He carefully measured every edge and curve to fit the exact model of the blademaster’s complicated armor. The armor, helmet and scepter took months to finish and cost about $400.

“A lot of people are like, ‘I want to be that character,’” Clarke said. “I just picked mine because it was big and it was spikey.”

On this hot summer evening at Lions Park in Golden, as the Sept. 16 cycling race rolled into town, Clarke, 34 of Commerce City, and two friends had come for a photo shoot for this story about the meaning of cosplay. Clarke’s transformation instantly drew stares from passersby. The suit makes Clarke look like an action figure, or, more specifically, a real live video game avatar, over his all-black elastic heat gear and leggings.

Cosplay — a combination of “costume” and “play” — is the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book or video game. It’s mostly popular in the realms of manga or anime, traiditional Japanese animations, and is used as an outlet of expression, either based on relation to a certain character, resemblance to a character or for the challenge of the costume itself.

Clarke’s costume is specific for competition, but the meaning of cosplay is deeper to him than just for winning trophies. He started an online group, Colorado Academy of Cosplay, to be a home for a community of about 350 cosplayers from around the state that specializes in educating beginners into the art of cosplay.

As Clarke strode across the parking lot at Lions Park, his form even resembled some sort of animation, walking almost robotically yet powerful and confident. He met his two co-founders of the Colorado Academy of Cosplay, Jennifer “Suvi” Losty, 33 of Lone Tree, and Elena Mathys, 21, of Golden. Losty cosplays as Valka, a main character from the movie “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and Mathys cosplays as Bandit Sivir, a battle mistress from the video game “League of Legends.”

The three formed the Colorado Academy of Cosplay in June as a group designed “for cosplayers, by cosplayers” to essentially bring back the purity of the art form. The group took off in just three months.

They were frustrated by what they saw as tarnishing the name of cosplay. First of all, they said, the changing competition rules from local conventions made it difficult for serious competitors to compete. Mathys also explained how the art of cosplay has been diluted by people seeking attention and by followers, using the opportunity to dress in skimpy or scandalous outfits that is common among cosplay outfits.

“At a lot of competitions, there’s a lot of body-shaming … That should not be happening,” Mathys said. “Cosplay is for everyone. Cosplay is for anyone. Cosplay shouldn’t be about followers. It should be about art, the effort, the friends that you make and the community.”

Clarke, Losty and Mathys take pride in the details of their costumes — Losty spent more than $500 on hers. To them, there’s a constant drive to approach perfection, even though they admittedly won’t ever be completely satisfied.

Cosplay also provides social opportunities. Mathys goes to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Clarke is a lab technician and Losty works in software.

“By nature,” Losty said, “we’re all introverts.”

Nearby, the “Golden Giddyup” mountain bike race drew a crowd of hundreds to Lions Park. For the most part, the trio of cosplayers drew confused stares and gaping mouths, with the exceptional thumbs-up or passing biker shouting “You guys are my heroes.”

In a situation when most people would feel awkward or uncomfortable dressed up as if they’re going to a costume party — as one little boy pointed out — dressing together in cosplay provided almost a heightened sense of self-confidence.

“I’m not super social,” Mathys said. “Personally, going out and seeing people, talking to strangers isn’t something I do on the normal. There’s strength in numbers. You know you’re not being singled out. There’s support from people behind you.”